
CopyrightN? 



COBORIGIir D£POSXC 



WINNING OUT 



THE LITTLE BOOK PUBLISHER 
All Rights Reserved 



WINNING OUT 



BY 
CHARLES H. STEWART 



U. 



THE LITTLE BOOK PUBLISHER 

ARLINGTON, N. J. 
1917 



^t^e 



Copyright, 1917 
By The Little Book Publisher 



MAR -2 mi 

©Ci A 455901 

"1 ve I . 






WINNING OUT 



Winning Out 

The European war continues to hold 
the attention of the world ; the ques- 
tion as to which side is going to win 
out is one in which everybody takes 
an intense interest. For the nations 
engaged in the struggle, this question 
is felt to be one which involves their 
very existence — for them it is the only 
thing worth thinking about. There- 
fore, all thought of the day is not only 
colored but largely determined by 
the war. 
Literature has become war litera- 



Winning Out 

ture; political and economic ques- 
tions are discussed with direct refer- 
ence to the war; poetry, music, art, 
religion, — in fact, every subject of 
human interest is adjusted to-day to 
meet the conditions of a world set in 
conflict. 

War books have reached such an 
enormous volume that public appe- 
tite is at last sated, and publishers 
say the demand for them is on the 
wane. The public mind, at first 
dazed by the gigantic horror of it all, 
is now taking second thought and 
everywhere this calm second thought 
is expressed in such questions as — 

^When will it end?" 

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Winning Out 

'Who will be victor?" 

"What will be the result for mod- 
ern civilization?" 

For the nations engaged in the con- 
flict there is then one question and 
only one that matters, — "Are we 
winning out?" 

Battles may be lost or won, terri- 
tory may be taken or surrendered, 
nations may be obliterated and new 
kingdoms made, but "Are we win- 
ning the war?" — that is the supreme 
issue — indeed, the only issue. 

Now it is not my purpose here to 

discuss this subject at all; I have 

raised the question in regard to the 

war only to set forth its supremacy 

3 



Winning Out 

and immediately to transfer it to 
another field. What remains to be 
said in these pages will, it is hoped, 
be of interest and help to Christian 
men and women, members of the 
Christian church who in these days 
must often have deep searchings of 
heart and many an anxious thought 
about the past achievements, the 
present situation, and the future out- 
look of the greatest institution known 
to man — the Church of Jesus Christ. 
For them the issue is vital, the 
question is as urgent and insistent, as 
it is in the warring world from which 
it has been transferred. That we 
may approach our discussion with 
4 



Winning Out 

some hope of satisfying results, it is 
necessary first to get some clear and 
compact idea of what the Christian 
church from the beginning was ex- 
pected to accomplish, just as we must 
judge of the success or failure of 
warring nations in proportion to the 
degree in which they accomplish the 
objects for which they went to war. 
If these aims are being achieved, they 
are winning out; if not, they are 
failing. 

It is true, of course, in both secular 
and religious warfare, that in the 
long drawn-out course of the strug- 
gle both victories and defeats accrue 
which were not foreseen. These 
5 



Winning Out 

must always be adjudged as sub- 
sidiary to the one great aim in view. 

When our Lord first proclaimed 
^The kingdom of heaven is at hand," 
what did He mean? What was His 
conception of the nature of that 
kingdom? What did He expect the 
kingdom to accomplish? Has the 
course of Christianity in the world 
corresponded to the program that 
Christ had in mind, or has it been a 
disappointment and a failure; or, 
even if not a total failure, has it been 
something wholly different from our 
Lord's anticipations? 

Having determined, as far as pos- 
sible, what Jesus expected and hoped 



Winning Out 

the kingdom would achieve, our next 
question is, how far the Christian 
Church is realizing the hopes of 
Jesus. Is it the moral and spiritual 
world-force He hoped it would be? 
Finally, let us consider an inti- 
mately related question — the influ- 
ence of Christianity upon the indi- 
vidual. 



First of all, then, what was our 
Lord's idea about His kingdom? 
Did He look for its immediate suc- 
cess? Did He think that multitudes 
would crowd into it and that only the 
hopeless few would be left out? 
When He saw eager men and women 
thronging about Him and hanging 
upon his every word, did He 
imagine that they were to become 
His disciples, would enter into 
actual loving fellowship with Him 
as did the small group of 'The 
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Winning Out 

Twelve''? And further, through 
these disciples' efforts did He expect 
the remainder of His fellow-country- 
men to be convinced and to come into 
the kingdom and that through them 
in turn other nations would come, and 
soon all the kingdoms of the world 
would become His kingdom? 

For answer to our inquiry we must 
study our Lord's own words in the 
Sermon on the Mount (Matt, vii, 13, 
14, etc.). There is a passage which 
seems to be a simple and direct 
answer to our question: "Enter ye in 
at the strait gate; for wide is the 
gate, and broad is the way, that 
leadeth to destruction, and many 
9 



Winning Out 

there be which go in thereat; because 
strait is the gate, and narrow is the 
way, which leadeth unto life; and 
few there be that find it." 

Our past over-emphasis on the 
future life has led the average New 
Testament reader to interpret this 
passage as referring wholly to the dis- 
posal of men's destinies beyond the 
grave, — the truly awful impression 
left on the mind being that only a few 
are to find salvation hereafter, while 
the great majority are to be over- 
whelmed in destruction too terrible 
to contemplate. But are we shut up 
to this view of the passage? Surely 
not. It is not apparent that our Lord 

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Winning Out 

is here discussing the final destiny of 
man; what He is speaking of is ^^the 
way that leadeth unto life/' 

It is the first passage in which the 
word ^^Hfe" appears as summing up 
all the blessedness of the kingdom. 
Life, in its highest sense, is the true 
and p'erfect knowledge of God and 
Christ (John xvii, 2, 3.). Such 
knowledge is attained only by the 
few. 

This ought not to surprise us for 

we see it everywhere else. If, for 

instance, you wish to enter into the 

life of a thinker, you will find that 

there is a strait gate and a narrow 

way, and few there be that find it. 
II 



Winning Out 

One of his disciples makes Socrates 
say these words : 

"Seest thou not a small door and a 
pathway before the door in no way 
crowded, but few, very few, go in 
thereat; this is the way that leadeth to 
true discipline.'^ 

When our Lord was upon this 
earth, it was only the few that heard 
and understood His message and 
entered fully into the more abundant 
life which He brought to men. It 
has been so in the history of the 
Church ever since, and it is strikingly 
the case to-day. 

People for the most part are 
wholly unconscious of the greatness 

12 



Winning Out 

of their own lives and the wonderful 
possibilities of them ; the masses still 
prefer the cheap movie to the artists' 
masterpiece; they read the shallow 
novel and neglect the real maker of 
literature; they applaud the clown 
and ignore the actor, all of which, 
no doubt, is saddening to the thought- 
ful and superior few; but it ought 
not to lead any to despair. After 
all, the majority of people are like 
children in the marketplace, as our 
Lord so fittingly said ; they are only 
children, especially in the things of 
the spirit. This, however, is far 
from saying that these thoughtless 
children are all eternally lost and 
13 



Winning Out 

beyond the pale of hope. Our Lord 
never taught such a thing, and cer- 
tainly we have no right to assume it. 
But what is going to become of this 
vast majority who are not finding the 
narrow gate that leads to life? 
^Wide is the gate, and broad is the 
way, that leadeth to destruction, and 
many there be which go in thereat." 
Here again the average New Tes- 
tament reader gives to the word 
^^destruction" the one interpretation 
to which he has become accustomed. 
He invariably thinks of it as applying 
wholly to the future state of suffering 
and misery. The truth is that it 
applies with greater fitness to con- 
14 



Winning Out 

ditions in this world. The word 
properly translated really means an- 
nihilation, extinction, loss, or waste. 

The ^^narrow gate" leads to life; 
that is, to life in its highest and fullest 
sense. The broad road leads to the 
opposite of life ; that is, to extinction. 
We know that our Lord did not teach 
that immortal souls could become 
extinct; the better word, therefore, 
would be ^^loss" or '^waste" ; the waste 
of life, the loss of the things that 
make life really precious, the 
wretchedness of a wasted life. This 
is the destruction of which Jesus 
speaks. 

Is it not true that only the very few 
15 



Winning Out 

are making the best of their lives? 
The multitudes go their way and, 
from the point of view of the highest 
things, their lives are going to waste. 
They are, although, alas, unconscious 
of it, suffering untold loss. If only 
the waste of life could be stopped, 
what a revolution would be wrought 
everywhere ! The sad fact is that it 
goes on every day before our very 
eyes, — waste of time — waste of 
energy — waste of health — waste of 
thought — waste, waste, waste, mul- 
titudes on the broad road that leads to 
waste and loss ! 

Did Jesus expect to stop this awful 
waste? Did He hope that during 
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Winning Out 

the progress of His kingdom in the 
world these multitudes could be 
turned from the broad road to seek 
the narrow gate? Here, it seems to 
me, a twofold answer must be given. 
In the first place, it is very doubt- 
ful that Jesus entertained the hope 
that every one would become His 
loyal disciple and enter into loving 
fellowship with Him. If He did, 
then after nineteen centuries how 
dreadfully that hope has been shat- 
tered! The truth is, that the masses 
of people, even in the most Christian 
countries to-day, are far from being 
devout and earnest followers of 
Christ. They are more bent upon 
17 



Winning Out 

following their own pursuits and 
pleasures. This is undoubtedly the 
truth and we may as well frankly 
face it. 

But a second and complementary 
answer to the question is that Jesus 
did most confidently believe that the 
Kingdom of God should be the sav- 
ing and redeeming force in the life of 
humanity; preserving it from the 
utter waste and destruction upon 
which it is bent, and introducing 
mighty, subtle, life-giving forces and 
energies which keep it ever on the 
upward path that leads to life. 
However long and painful the path 
may be, there is the unconquerable 
i8 



Winning Out 

faith that it leads to the goal of a 
redeemed, exalted, and glorified hu- 
manity. 

Our Lord said, "Ye are the salt of 
the earth"; meaning that His people 
were to preserve society and keep it 
from "going to the bad." He said, 
"The kingdom of heaven is like 
leaven" ; that is, that it should act in 
such a way as everywhere to make 
itself felt in the sweetening and eleva- 
tion of human life. 

Again, it is like a grain of mus- 
tard seed, or it is like a field where 
some of the land was hard, some 
stony, some choked with thorns, and 
only a portion of it good and fruit- 
19 



Winning Out 

ful ground. Or, it was like another 

field where wheat and tares were 

growing together — but even where 

the tares had possession they were not 

to be torn up lest a few precious 

heads of the wheat be destroyed. 

Or, like a net which caught all kinds 

of fishes, both good and bad. 

A careful study of the parables 

will, I think, correct the exaggerated 

and wrong notions that people have 

had about what Christ thought His 

kingdom was to be. He made all 

allowance for failures and partial 

successes, for the slow progress and 

the disappointing results which we so 

deplore. He did not expect the 
20 



Winning Out 

world to be converted in a day or in a 
millennium. 

In the light of His teachings we 
have to ask whether the church is 
winning out along the lines of His 
expectation. Is the church to-day 
the "salt of the earth/' keeping life 
clean and sweet and saving it from 
corruption, or has the salt lost its 
preserving savor? Can it be said 
that Christianity, as we know it, is 
leavening human life and thought? 
Is it making its elevating power felt 
everywhere, or has society become 
so sodden that the leaven is without 
effect? Does the good seed of the 
kingdom still grow and flourish and 

21 



Winning Out 

feed the famished, or has the ground 
become so hard, so stony, and so 
choked with thorns that there is no 
prospect of a harvest unto life 
eternal? 



22 



II 

Is the church to-day meeting the 
needs of the age? Here we are 
facing one of the most difficult, and 
at the same time one of the most im- 
portant, questions that we can possi- 
bly ask. Let us imagine our question 
addressed to three classes of people, 
— those who are hostile to religion, 
those who are indifferent, and those 
who are deeply interested. 

The answer of the first class would 
be an emphatic ^^NoT' To these 
people religion is a dangerous super- 
23 



Winning Out 

stition which, vampire-like, preys 
upon the ignorance and credulity of 
its helpless and pathetic victims, only 
to serve its own selfish ends. The 
church is not meeting the needs of the 
age, these critics savagely reply, be- 
cause there is no such need as the 
church prates about. Man has no 
religious nature, no spiritual long- 
ings, no sense of sin, no hidden heart 
sorrow, no yearning for higher fel- 
lowship, no hunger for God, no 
longings for a higher or fuller life 
here and hereafter. All such things 
are but the rankest superstitions, 
craftily implanted and cunningly 

fostered by designing priests, who 
24 



Winning Out 

live in ease and exert vast influence by 
means of them. The real needs of 
humanity, our hostile critics tell us, 
are abundant bread and butter, 
material comforts, and ^'a good 
time f give these to the world and it 
wants no more. 

Happily, such critics are now few 
in number. There was a time, a gen- 
eration or so ago, when they were 
quite plentiful — strangely enough, it 
was at a time when our American 
churches were thronged with wor- 
shipers. People know better to-day, 
though large numbers still think that 
the chief needs of the world are 

material. 

25 



Winning Out 

The modern socialist, who assumes 

no hostility to religion and even 

acknowledges religious needs as 

valid, is, nevertheless, very sure that 

the healing of our social disorders is 

the first necessity. No doubt the 

needs of the body and those of the 

soul are intimately connected. Jesus 

recognized this from the first, and it 

has always been recognized to some 

extent by the church, though, alas, 

the church has attempted to deal with 

material needs by means of crude and 

blundering methods. Like every 

human institution, the church has 

had to learn, and there are evidences 

on every hand to-day that she is learn- 
26 



Winning Out 

ing the lesson of her responsibility for 
social conditions. Recognizing all 
that, however, the church is certain 
that man's material needs are not the 
only, nor even the first, consideration. 
She knows too well that multitudes 
of those who have every material 
blessing that heart can crave are 
among the most desolate and un- 
happy of human beings. 

The answer of the indifferent 
masses — and their name is legion — to 
the question *^Is the church meeting 
the needs of the age?'' is an acted, and 
not a spoken, answer; for the truth 
is that the indifferent masses are not 
interested enough to make any spoken 
27 



Winning Out 

answer. They are neither for the 
church nor against her; they simply 
are not interested. The dogma of 
endless torments in hell is no longer 
either preached or believed, and 
though at intervals there may be a 
sort of haunting dread as to what 
may be after death, it is not so acute 
as to drive the indifferent man to 
take any very active precautionary 
measures as to his soul. 

His soul, if he has one, he thinks 
must take chances with the vast 
majority of his fellowmen, who, he 
sees, live very much as he does him- 
self. True, even the indifferent man 
has his moments of illumination ; ever 
28 



Winning Out 

and again he is brought suddenly face 
to face with life's realities. Misfor- 
tune, sickness, and death come to his 
home too, and at such moments he 
reproaches himself bitterly for his 
religious indifference and neglect. 
But all that passes away and he is 
soon back again in the old ruts. It 
would seem that the answer of this 
class of persons is of no consequence, 
— and yet actions do speak. 

The most indifferent persons resort 
to the church and to religion for com- 
fort and help when sorrow and death 
are upon them. Even those who 
never go to church send for the 

minister when a child dies. They 
29 



Winning Out 

themselves may live like heathen, but 
they want the child to have a Chris- 
tian burial. 

Then, too, the indifferent masses 
have their own ways of thinking. 
They have their ideas of right and 
wrong. Many of them are not in- 
different upon great moral questions ; 
they have a conscience ; yes, they have 
a heart too, and often the most touch- 
ing deeds of kindness are done by 
those who are religiously indifferent. 
And even on religious questions their 
dormant interest may, on occasion, 
be aroused. It is truly remarkable, 
for instance, to what a towering rage 
a Protestant, who never darkens his 
30 



Winning Out 

own church door, may be aroused if 
his faith is attacked by a Roman 
Catholic. I have known a man to 
curse and swear outrageously in de- 
fending his religion against the attack 
of an atheist. 

Another most remarkable pheno- 
menon is, that these same people, 
indifferent about their own souls, are 
surprisingly concerned about the 
souls of others. I know many men 
of this class who urge their wives to 
attend church; I know many parents 
who never go to church themselves, 
yet they are at great pains to see that 
their children attend Sabbath School 
and church services regularly. All 
31 



Winning Out 

of this goes to show that the dumb 
and inarticulate mass of the religious- 
ly indifferent acknowledge, by their 
actions at least, that there is a soul- 
need and that the church is in some 
way meeting that need. 

Nor must it ever be forgotten that 
this class is never hopeless. Indeed, 
we are always getting fresh surprises 
from this quarter; indifference is, 
after all, a habit of mind with many 
people, for they are indifferent about 
other things as well; these are the 
people who would never think of 
taking the trouble to vote when elec- 
tion day arrives, but ever and again 
some issue arises sufficiently impor- 
3^ 



Winning Out 

tant to arouse them, and then they go 
to the polls. And after the prognos- 
tications of all the political wiseacres 
have gone awry, we read that the 
silent vote did it. Just so! How 
often has it happened that when some 
great moral issue, like temperance 
reform, or the eradication of social 
evils, or political corruption, was to 
be decided, these silent voters have 
proved that they are, after all, a 
potential ally of whom the church 
ought to feel neither hopelessness nor 
despair. 

But what is the answer of the 
church herself to the question under 
discussion? What does she honestly 
33 



Winning Out 

think of herself? Here we are met 
with very marked and well-defined 
attitudes on the part of leaders and 
members and friends of the church. 

Lying on my desk as I write is a 
little book, ably written by a Chris- 
tian minister, entitled "The Church 
of To-day." ^ The attitude of the 
writer is one of severe though whole- 
some criticism. His view of the 
present situation of the church is, to 
say the least, gloomy and the gloom 
deepens along these lines : 

I. There is a marked decrease in 
the supply of ministers. Ten years 
ago (the book was written in 1908) 

^ By Joseph Henry Crookcr. 

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Winning Out 

^'the number of students in American 
divinity schools was 4000; ten years 
later it had fallen to 3300, whereas it 
ought to have advanced to 4500, had 
it kept pace with the growth of 
population." 

2. The lack of popular interest in 
theological books is deplored as 
showing a falling off in interest in 
religion on the part of the general 
public. 

3. The difficulty that church 
papers and religious periodicals have 
in maintaining themselves is another 
part of the cumulative argument. 

4. The sensationalism of the mod- 
ern pulpit is cited as "a striking 

35 



Winning Out 

evidence of the decreasing hold of 
the church upon the world, too evi- 
dent to need extended discussion." 

5. Church attendance, it is said, 
has not kept pace with the growth of 
population in the country generally ; 
and where it is keeping up it is due 
to the large influx of Roman Catho- 
lics, who are all said to be church- 
goers. 

6. During recent years, gifts and 
money to other humanitarian institu- 
tions are said to largely exceed those 
to the church, such institutions, for 
example, as libraries, hospitals, and 
various charitable institutions. 

7. Still another evidence in the 

36 



Winning Out 

same direction is the decline of the 
salaries paid to clergymen. There 
are some American country towns 
where the minister's salary is $600 
per annum, while that of the high 
school principal in the same town is 
$1600. 

8. Along the same line, the writer 
notes that the position of the minister, 
formerly one of respect and author- 
ity, has deteriorated into that of a 
^^merely decorative figure," desirable 
at banquets, weddings, funerals, 
etc. 

And so the damaging indictment 
proceeds along the line of the 
church's failure with labor leaders 
37 



Winning Out 

and capitalists, its failure to influence 
the home life, to preserve the sanctity 
of the Sabbath, etc., etc. 

The one rift in the cloud is the last 
sentence of a very arresting chapter 
w^hich reads : 

*^It is well to see the dangers, but 
it is best to take means to rescue the 
church from its dangers and so win a 
victory for God and man." 

Thank God, there is hope, though 
it is assuredly a disconcerting thought 
that a church, established in the 
world for the purpose of rescuing the 
lost, is herself in such desperate need 
of rescue. Still, even a sinking life- 
boat has been bailed out by its occu- 
38 



Winning Out 

pants and both boat and occupants 
have been saved. 

Side by side with the book from 
which I have just quoted, there lies 
another small volume, also ably writ- 
ten, entitled "The Call of the 
World,'^ ^ published only a year or 
so later, in which quite another series 
of facts are set forth. As this writer 
sees it, there is an awakening — social, 
political, commercial, educational, 
religious — such as the world never, 
never saw before. In every case the 
forces and agencies which brought 
this marvelous awakening about have 
come from Christian lands. Most 

1 By W. E. Doughty. 

39 



Winning Out 

potent of all these forces is the Chris- 
tian missionary who has gone to the 
ends of the earth, taking with him 
not only the message of salvation, but 
also the finest ideals of western civili- 
zation. 

Quoting from Professor Ross's 
"The Changing Chinese," the writer 
proceeds : 

"The next ten years will, in all 
probability, constitute a turning- 
point in human history and may be 
of more critical importance in de- 
termining the spiritual evolution of 
mankind, than many centuries of 
ordinary experience. If those years 

are wasted, havoc may be wrought 
40 



Winning Out 

that centuries will not be able to 
repair. On the other hand, if they 
are rightly used, they may be among 
the most glorious in human history." 

These prophetic words were 
written before the outbreak of the 
European war and already we have 
seen that the turning-point in human 
history was reached in much less than 
the ten years predicted. 

Another world-fact of vast sig- 
nificance to this writer is the increase 
in population in the Christian coun- 
tries. During the past century the 
population of the United States and 
Canada has increased from 5,000,000 
to 110,000,000. In the same period 
41 



Winning Out 

the population of Europe has in- 
creased from 170,000,000 to 450,000,- 
000, while during the same hundred 
years the population of non-Chris- 
tian countries has in some cases 
declined, in others remained station- 
ary, and at best has made only 
insignificant increases. 

Again, it is pointed out that while 
three hundred years ago only seven 
per cent of the world's territory was 
controlled by Christian nations, 
to-day eighty-two per cent of it is so 
controlled. One hundred years ago 
there were only about a dozen mis- 
sionary societies in the whole world, 
while to-day there are a thousand. 
42 



Winning Out 

At the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, we are told, there was only 
a handful of missionaries in the non- 
Christian world, and not one repre- 
sentative of the churches of North 
America, while to-day there are more 
than 22,000 missionaries. 

The following figures are given for 
the student volunteer movement 
alone : 

*The number of student volunteers 
that sailed : 

1898-1902 780 

1902-1906 1000 

1906-1910 1286 

^^In the year 191 1 alone the total 
43 



Winning Out 

reached was 410, indicating the fact 
that the goal of 2000 sailed volun- 
teers for the period of forty years 
is not too much to expect. One 
hundred years ago the gifts for mis- 
sions of the whole Christian church 
were only $100,000 annually, while 
to-day the amount contributed ex- 
ceeds $30,000,000." 

Another interesting statement is 
made of the progress of the Kingdom 
of God, by centuries. At the end of 
the second century there were 2,000,- 
000 Christians; at the end of the 
tenth, 50,000,000; the fifteenth, 100,- 
000,000 ; the eighteenth, 200,000,000 ; 
the nineteenth, 500,000,000. Ad- 
44 



Winning Out 

verting to what the writer calls 
^^recent victories" we read : 

"Looking at America first, we dis- 
cover that loo years ago there were 
364,872 communicant members of the 
Protestant churches, out of a popula- 
tion of 5,305,925, or, one in fourteen. 
To-day one in four of the population 
is identified with the Protestant 
church. One hundred years ago 
only one in ten of the college students 
in America was a communicant mem- 
ber of the church, to-day practically 
every other college student is a mem- 
ber of some church. It is certainly 
encouraging that 50 per cent of that 
small fraction of our population, 
45 



Winning Out 

which will furnish an enormous per- 
centage of the leaders, are church 
members to-day, or five times as large 
a proportion as loo years ago." 

I close these two books and place 
them side by side on the shelf and 
find myself thinking earnestly over 
their contents and asking which is 
true. The answer that comes is that 
both are true, and the truth which 
each contains ought ever to be kept 
in the Christian's view. No doubt 
the church has made grave mistakes, 
has been guilty of much inefficiency, 
has been selfish and lethargic and be- 
hind the times, has failed lamentably 
to exercise anything like the full 
46 



Winning Out 

force of her vast actual and potential 
powers for the advance of the king- 
dom. Yet, after all, it is her suc- 
cesses and not her failures that are 
impressive ; on the whole, it is not the 
paralyzing fear of defeat, but the 
thrill of victory that comes to any one 
who will be at pains to take a calm 
and dispassionate view of the whole 
situation as it confronts us to-day. 

In relief of fear, let all earnest 
souls, distressed at the present out- 
look, remember that present condi- 
tions are not new. The church has 
always been on the brink of a chasm ; 
she has always been face to face with 
a crisis. To the outsider it has ever 
47 



Winning Out 

appeared that her very existence was 
at stake and her collapse but a mat- 
ter of time. Strangely enough, the 
very things that cause alarm to-day 
have existed from the beginning. 
The thing that distresses most people 
now is the lack of attendance on 
Christian worship ; the worldly and 
non-Christian spirit that seems so 
evident within the church, and the 
deadening indifference both within 
the church and in the world outside. 
Attendance at public worship is, 
after all, but a superficial standard 
by which to judge of the real life and 
power of the church. Yet it is a 
standard, though Isaiah warns the 
48 



Winning Out 

people of his time that it is vain to 
crowd the courts of God's temple and 
to perform religious duties scrup- 
ulously, while these very devotees fail 
in true and just and merciful con- 
duct which God requires. The 
Scribes and Pharisees were punctil- 
ious to a degree in the performance 
of religious offices, but they neglected 
the weightier matters of the law. 
We are inclined to look back with 
wistful longing to that early New 
Testament church and pray for the 
return of those glorious days that are 
gone. Yet, even then the people 
were apparently lazy about going to 
church, indeed some of them had 
49 



Winning Out 

stopped altogether, hence the New 
Testament admonition not ^^to for- 
sake the assembling of yourselves 
together as the manner of some 



is." 



Yes, but was not the life of that 
apostolic church one of purity com- 
pared with ours? There were, un- 
doubtedly, many cases of consecrated 
and exalted lives that we would do 
well to imitate, but on the other hand 
there were, even in those good old 
days, strifes, bitter j anglings and 
stupid debates, dangerous heresies, 
and even gross immoralities. At 
Corinth we know some members had 
to be sharply rebuked for becoming 
50 



Winning Out 

drunk at the communion table. 
Even that glorious teacher of the 
early Christian church, Chrysostom, 
the "golden mouthed" as he was 
called, for the marvelous effects of 
his oratory, complained bitterly that 
w^hile the people thronged the market 
and the games, the house of God was 
well-nigh deserted. It is a fact that 
to-day, as of yore, even good and 
great Christians are at times seized 
with panic and pessimism, like the 
greatest of Hebrew prophets who 
wailed, "I only am left and they seek 
my life to take it away," whereas, 
with things as bad as they then were, 
still 7000 men had not bowed the 
51 



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knee to Baal, and the hope of Israel 
was more in that unnamed 7000 than 
even in their immortal prophet 

Then I would say that Christian 
people are not to be terrified by 
alarmists' statistics. I should revise 
the well-known aphorism that figures 
do not lie, by adding ^'unless you 
make them." I once saw a very 
ingenious table of figures dealing 
with the increase of insanity in Eng- 
land. It proved to a mathematical 
certainty that should the then rate of 
increase be maintained, it would only 
be a matter of easily measurable time 
when every man, woman, and child 
in England would be insane. I 
52 



Winning Out 

never forget this when I see formid- 
able lists of figures that show con- 
clusively at what an alarming rate 
church attendance is falling off. 
The truth is that figures can deal only 
with material entities and that spirit- 
ual forces and our estimate of them 
lie quite outside the domain of Ara- 
bic numerals. 

Again, reflect that the church is not 
the only institution that has the 
appearance of being always at a 
crisis. Indeed, everything that is 
living and growing has a way of con- 
tinually facing great crises; from 
birth to death we are constantly 
encountering such crises ourselves. 
S3 



Winning Out 

It is only after a person is dead that 
the crises of his life are over. 

Look, for instance, at that other 
venerable institution, the State. Are 
conditions always satisfactory there? 
Has there ever been a State where the 
government was so good, the laws so 
just, and the conditions of life so 
ideal, that nothing more was left to 
be desired? On the contrary, have 
we not had from the days of Plato, 
and even unto the days of Bernard 
Shaw, dreamers of perfect w^orld- 
states, and rebels against stupid and 
foolish systems of government? At 
this very hour is not one of the great- 
est issues of the European war, that 
54 



Winning Out 

of Democratic right of government 
vs. the "Divine right of Kings"? 

Everybody admits that the most 
important questions of humanity per- 
taining to human happiness and wel- 
fare on this planet are those relating 
to government. What sacrifices 
have been made to disrupt tyrannies 
and establish just and free govern- 
ments I The Magna Charta, the De- 
claration of Independence, and like 
documents are the memorials of past 
struggles to achieve the glorious boon 
of human liberty. All agree that 
such liberty is a priceless good, yet- 
is there no indifference on the part of 
those who enjoy such liberty? 
SS 



Winning Out 

We have just had a presidential 
election, an event v^hich takes place 
only once in four years. Every 
effort was made by all parties thirst- 
ing for power to get out the vote ; yet, 
even after the most strenuous agita- 
tion, one fourth of the voters did not 
take the trouble to go to the polls to 
exercise that right for which millions 
have suffered and died, and for which 
they are suffering and dying to- 
day. 

With all the charges against Chris- 
tian people concerning religious in- 
difference, there are more people in 
the United States who attend re- 
ligious services every Sunday than 



Winning Out 

the whole voting population of the 
country. 

There is still a more ancient insti- 
tution than the State; namely, the 
home. How are conditions here? 
Are they reassuring, or is this most 
ancient and blessed of all human in- 
stitutions doomed to die from off the 
earth ? Everybody knows that home 
life to-day is not what it was a 
generation ago. The causes which 
account for this are many and com- 
plex. The influx of vast foreign 
populations, the marvelous industrial 
developments, the rapid accumula- 
tion of wealth, the removal of popu- 
lations from rural districts to the 
57 



Winning Out 

cities, — these have all had a decided 
influence on the changed home life. 
Recently an investigating society 
reported that drunkenness and im- 
morality were more prevalent among 
married men than among single men, 
the cause assigned being discontent 
and unhappiness in the home. 
Who to-day can view our alarming 
divorce statistics and not tremble for 
the future of the American home? 
Look, too, at society to-day; its 
very foundations seem to be giving 
way. Law and order are widely 
held in contempt; and if we are to 
rely upon figures, crime is rapidly on 
the increase. Any civilized com- 
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Winning Out 

munity will probably always be able 
to keep serious crime well in check, 
but there are other dangers dark and 
menacing: the dangers that are every 
day becoming more acute, dangers 
of open war and revolution, due to 
the deep-seated enmity existing be- 
tween two powerfully organized 
forces— capital and labor. Already 
we have reached the stage of blood- 
shed in industrial disputes, and we 
are warned in certain quarters that it 
is only another step to armed encoun- 
ter, an event which, if it should come 
to pass in America to-day, would 
surpass the horrors of the French 
Revolution. This, of course, is an 
59 



Winning Out 

extreme and, as I think, a quite un- 
warranted view of our social condi- 
tions, but there is sufficient truth in 
it to convince any observer that so- 
ciety, too, is at the cross-roads. 

But do these considerations help 
the church out of her difficulties? 
Do they not rather increase them? 
If the church is really on the down- 
grade, it is surely poor comfort to 
reflect that she is not alone in her 
misery, but has with her all other 
human institutions. This would be 
a valid objection if it were granted 
that the church and the State, the 
home and society, actually are on the 

down-grade, a premise which surely 
60 




Winning Out 

not even the most extravagant pessim- 
ist can claim. 

The considerations stated are ad- 
vanced rather to show that just as the 
great and abiding human institutions 
have their crises, are faced by dangers 
and beset by difficulties which they 
must not evade but overcome, so too 
the church is similarly beset, and 
must not, through weakness or panic 
or cowardice, sit bemoaning her evil 
days, but take firm and resolute steps 
to change them. We must try to 
understand the real causes that 
account for the religious indifference 
of our time, and wherever such causes 

can be removed, it must be done; 
6i 



Winning Out 

where they cannot, then we must find 
effective means of counteracting 
them. 

I am convinced that the chief 
cause of religious indifference is to 
be found deep in human nature itself. 
There is an inborn laziness in man 
which accounts largely for his atti- 
tude toward the nation, the home, the 
church, and society in general. 
Wherever duties are optional and not 
compulsory you are sure to meet with 
widespread indifference; of course, 
in an ethical sense duties can never 
be optional. How many people, for 
instance, would pay taxes volun- 
tarily? Do we not all receive our 
62 



Winning Out 

tax notices and pay the bill with 
a sort of mental protest? We pay 
the bill because we must do so. If 
street paving, building of schools, 
colleges, hospitals, etc., were depen- 
dent upon the rates which public- 
spirited citizens freely contributed, 
the city would fare very badly 
indeed. Now religious duties are all 
of the voluntary kind. Not even the 
mildest sort of compulsion can be 
applied, yet millions upon millions of 
people go to church regularly, and 
tens of millions of dollars pour into 
the church treasury unceasingly: 
whole armies of teachers and Sabbath 
School workers give a large part of 
63 



Winning Out 

their time to church work without 
remuneration of any material kind. 
There is no human interest apart 
from religion that could command 
the response which the church is 
everywhere receiving to-day. 

Then, too, we must abandon the 
superficial but widely accepted 
method of trying to estimate spiritual 
results by statistics. The greatest of 
all religious teachers said, '^God is a 
Spirit, and they that worship Him, 
must worship Him in spirit and in 
truth." We ought to inquire not 
merely how many persons have 
joined the church, and how many 
dollars have been raised, but, is there 
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Winning Out 

a more Christian spirit abroad? is the 
leaven of Christianity really at work? 
are men making more diligent and 
intelligent inquiry about religious 
truth? Above all, are they becom- 
ing more humane and merciful and 
Christ-like in their spirit? On the 
whole, is this a better world to live 
in than it was a thousand or a hun- 
dred years ago? 

An English paper quotes the 
Bishop of London as saying that a 
hundred years ago London was more 
godly than it is to-day. The paper 
answers the Bishop in this way: 

^'Those general charges are not to 
be proved or disproved by isolated 



Winning Out 

instances, but a few typical incidents 
quoted from the ^Observer' of a cen- 
tury ago, to show the level of morals 
and taste at the time which Dr. 
Ingram thinks ethically superior to 
to-day: 

'''Good Old Times! Private of 
Sussex Regiment . received 550 
lashes in the public park, Notting- 
ham. 

^^ Wife, the mother of eleven chil- 
dren, offered for sale at Cirencester 
with a halter round her neck, and 
sold for two shillings. 

^^ ^Sentence of death for stealing a 

silver watch (Northamptonshire 

Assizes). 

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Winning Out 

" ^Inmate of Bedlam chained to 
his bed for 13 years, though he had 
long lucid intervals. (Statement in 
Parliament.) 

" 'Total number of non-resident 
clergy, 631 1; number of resident 
clergy, 4490. (Parliamentary re- 
turn.) 

'^ 'Shiploads of women convicts 
dispatched to New South Wales. 

" 'A great main of cocks fought at 
Henfield between the Gentlemen of 
Sussex and the Gentlemen of Kent 
for 20 pounds a match and 500 
pounds the odd. 

" 'One-eighth of the population in 
receipt of poor-law relief. 

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Winning Out 

" ^Chimney sweeper's boy suffo- 
cated through coming down the 
wrong chimney. 

" Tour men exhibited in the pil- 
lory and plentifully pelted with 
garbage, rotten eggs, etc. 

" ^At a bear-baiting in Essex the 
animal did not provide enough 
sport; whereupon the infuriated 
crowd broke into the ring and cut off 
its four paws.' 

^^The inference from these details 
is not materially modified by the cir- 
cumstances (announced in the Court 
Circular for 1815) that the Prince 

Regent had at that time 103 chap- 
68 



J 



Winning Out 

lains. It must be remembered too 
that the newspapers of those days did 
not take account of such common- 
places as the employment of work- 
house children in mines, or the 
destitution of whole communities 
(till they broke out into riot- 
ing).'''^ 

I have recently been reading a 
history of Newark, New Jersey, in 
which I discovered two matters of 
historic record as follows : 

"Colonel Ogden saved his wheat 
on Sunday, was censured by the Pres- 
byterian Church, and as a result 

1 "Public Opinion" (London, October 13, 1916). 

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Winning Out 

Trinity Episcopal Church was 
founded." 

On the same page you read, under 
date of March, 1775: 

"Newark Academy was founded; 
at a regular meeting of the commit- 
tee of the Academy, December, 1794, 
it was resolved that the Rev. Mr. 
Ogden be empowered to sell the 
negro man ^James', given by Mr. 
Watts as a donation to the Academy, 
for as much money as he will sell 
for." 

It was an unpardonable sin for 

Colonel Ogden to save his wheat on 

Sunday; it was a commendable 

benevolence for the Rev. Mr. Ogden 
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Winning Out 

to sell the negro man James ^^for as 
much money as he will sell for." 
All the hideous cruelty and unspeak- 
able inhumanity of capturing the 
poor slaves in their own native 
Africa; all the heart-breaking sor- 
rows of children and parents being 
torn asunder; all this stirs no feeling 
of revolt in the heart of that kindly 
Puritan clergyman when putting the 
man "James" under the auctioneer's 
hammer! 

Facts like these could be produced 
indefinitely to show that life is be- 
coming more Christian in spirit, that 
this is a better and a more humane 
world in which to live, and that with 
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Winning Out 

all its failures, Christianity is win- 
ning out, the leaven is quietly, secret- 
ly, silently, but mightily making 
itself felt in every nation under 
heaven. In the most unexpected 
quarters the benign influence is mani- 
festing itself. 

At the outbreak of the European 
war many timid souls thought that 
the final proof of the bankruptcy of 
Christianity was at hand, whereas, 
everybody knows to-day that even 
the warring world is looking towards 
Christ and the ideals for which He 
lived and died, as the one hope of 
humanity. 

There is a changed religious note 
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Winning Out 

apparent in the works of such well- 
known Englishmen as Mr. H. G. 
'Wells, and even Mr. Bernard Shaw, 
while Mr. Bottomly, the editor of 
John Bull, has renounced his well- 
known agnosticism and professed 
faith in God. The war is not yet 
over, but already there is talk of 
peace from many quarters. It is 
significant that all such talk is to the 
effect that ideas of conquest and 
revenge and merely national am- 
bition must be wholly abjured; and 
that permanent peace, the rights of 
the weak and the common good of 
all, must be determining factors. 
So, even out of the awful welter of 
73 



Winning Out 

war, the Christian way of looking at 
things comes more to the front than 
ever before in the history of the 
world. 



74 



Ill 

Suppose it be granted that Chris- 
tianity is not deteriorating, that on 
the whole it is winning out, that 
though there may be loss in some 
directions — for instance, in church 
attendance — there are immense com- 
pensating gains in others ; that there 
is more of the spirit of Christ mani- 
fest in human society; that men are 
more inclined to works of unselfish- 
ness and benevolence and mercy; that 
they are more open to considerations 
of social justice and fair play. Ad- 
mitting all these, accepting them at 
75 



Winning Out 

their face value as hopeful signs of 
the times, is the religion of Christ 
winning out in individual and par- 
ticular cases? Is it a great redeem- 
ing force in the hearts of men and 
women considered as separate in- 
dividuals and not merely in mass? 
Is there a divine power that lifts 
the drunkard from the gutter and 
reclaims the harlot from the street? 
Is there a power which restrains men 
from sin and enables them to over- 
come temptation? Is there a source 
of inward, spiritual strength to 
which any earnest soul may resort 
and find the help and courage that he 
needs for life? 

76 



Winning Out 

No questions could possibly be 
more vital than these. If Christian- 
ity is failing here, it is failing every- 
where; if it is winning here, then it 
has the assurance of complete suc- 
cess. Psychology is, as yet, too un- 
certain a science to enable us to 
estimate with precision just what are 
the spiritual forces which enter into 
the making of Christian character, 
yet some of these are so evident that 
they can not be mistaken. 

We turn to our New Testaments 
and find certain great and arresting 
words; such, for instance, as ^^salva- 
tion.'' What does this word mean? 
What are the spiritual forces that 
77 



Winning Out 

enter into its process and produce its 
results? Words have a way of wear- 
ing out and so are constantly in need 
of a re-interpretation. The popular 
conception of ^'salvation" is the sort 
of shrewd ^^safety first" idea of the 
man on the street; he immediately 
thinks of escape from future punish- 
ment, of making sure of his own 
safety, whatever may become of 
others. He has the notion that 
religion can in some mysterious way 
afford the guarantee of a safe pass- 
port through this uncertain life and 
a triumphant entrance to the Celes- 
tial City, where, henceforth and 
forever, he will be out of the reach of 

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danger. Is this the New Testament 
view? 

Take a concrete case, such as that 
of Zacchaeus the publican. You re- 
call the story in the nineteenth chap- 
ter of Luke. "This day is salvation 
come to this house,'^ said Jesus, "for 
the Son of Man is come to seek and 
to save that which is lost." 

In this story a clinic in salvation 
is taking place before our very eyes. 
Observe the spiritual forces which 
are brought into play. First, there 
is the redeeming force of a great 
ideal. Zacchaeus "sought to see 
Jesus who He was," and as he saw, 
the marvelous, moral, and spiritual 
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Winning Out 

revolution began. There was some- 
thing in the very presence of the 
Master that rebuked every low and 
selfish and sinful impulse in the 
heart of Zacchaeus. The forces of 
evil that wrought so mightily in the 
rich, greedy, unscrupulous publican 
were, for the time, suspended, and in 
their place there was born, in the 
soul of this lost man, a yearning 
desire for loving fellowship with the 
new-found Friend and Teacher ; the 
wish evermore to sit at Jesus' feet and 
drink in the words of eternal life. 
This very desire for Christ, this 
pathetic yearning of a soul for 

conscious communion with the 
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Highest, is at once the most persis- 
tent and the most powerful of the 
spiritual forces that make for 
ultimate victory in the heart of 
man. 

There is everlasting hope for 
every soul where such desire is. 
Here, undoubtedly, is one of the 
great winning forces of religion in 
the world to-day. It is true that we 
cannot come into actual, personal 
contact with Jesus as Zacchaeus did. 
We cannot catch the glance of love 
and grace and power in the same 
physical way. Yet we too may seek 
to see Jesus who He is, and we may 

see Him in the loftiness and Ipveli- 
8i 



Winning Out 

ness of His revealed life as truly as 
Zacchaeus did. As we look, salva- 
tion may come to us as truly as it did 
to him. 

Then, again, there is the force of 
an aroused conscience. All the 
hideous depths of sin are laid bare in 
a moment of time. There stands a 
man heartily ashamed of all his past 
evil life and tired of all the slippery 
v^ays of sin. Conscience, that voice 
of God within the soul, ordinarily a 
still small voice, is now trumpet- 
tongued and brings forth such over- 
whelming accusation that the dis- 
tressed culprit cries out in agony 
and shame, '^If I have taken anything 
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Winning Out 

from any man by false accusation, I 
restore him fourfold." 

Any power that will drive a rich, 
greedy publican to take a stand like 
that is unquestionably one to be reck- 
oned with. What a restraining in- 
fluence, too, is conscience. Who of 
us is there who has not been on the 
brink of sin, yet held back by the in- 
ward voice. Judging from our own 
cases there must be millions of our 
fellow-beings restrained from evil 
and kept in the path of virtue by the 
inward voice of conscience ; or, hav- 
ing sinned, have been driven, like 
Zacchaeus, to penitence and restitu- 
tion* 

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Winning Out 

Then there is the force of a gener- 
ous impulse. Zacchaeus was not sat- 
isfied with making a fourfold restitu- 
tion for the frauds of which he had 
been guilty; but now, his soul freed 
and cleansed, his nature opens wide 
to the higher and nobler impulses of 
generosity. He thinks of the poor in 
the streets of his own city. He had 
helped to make them poor. For 
years they had languished in misery 
and wretchedness, while he lolled in 
riches and luxury. The sense of duty 
and responsibility asserts itself and 
this converted publican is moved 
powerfully. 

Up to this time Zacchaeus had been 
84 



I 



Winning Out 

an object of scorn and contempt. 
^^He has gone to be a guest with a 
man that is a sinner," the whole 
crowd jeered when Jesus went down 
to the house of Zacchaeus; but the 
next day, when Zacchaeus went from 
door to door, paying back all the 
money which he had dishonestly 
taken — four times over — it took the 
sting out of their reproach ; and when 
he went down among the poor and 
divided with them all of his fortune 
that he had left, that was evidence 
enough to convince all the skeptics 
and scofifers in Jericho, and those of 
our own time, as well, that the re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ is a reality in 
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Winning Out 

the lives of men. Now the scoffers 
understood what He meant when He 
said, ^^To-day is salvation come to 
this house/' Now we, too, are ready- 
to see in the light of this incident 
what the old, well-worn word "salva- 
tion'' really means. It is not the es- 
cape from danger; it is the re-mak- 
ing of a man's inward life so that he 
is ready to meet whatever danger 
there may be here or hereafter. 

True, the theological terms of re- 
pentance and faith, justification and 
regeneration, are not even mentioned 
in this entire incident, but who does 
not see all these forces at work? We 
do not need to be told that Zacchaeus 
86 



1 



Winning Out 

believed in Christ; we see that he 
did. We need not be told that he re- 
pented; we see the penitent in every 
act; we do not need to be told that he 
was regenerated by the Holy Spirit; 
we see the fruits of regeneration in 
his life. In a word, we see that true 
Christianity was at work here in the 
heart of an individual and that it was 
beyond all doubt a winning force. 

This very force is at work now. 
Millions of the best people this 
world knows attribute the strength 
and victory and joy of their lives 
to no other power than the spirit of 
Christ working in their consciences, 
their wills, their minds. Every 
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Winning Out 

thoughtful Christian knows with 
perfect assurance that wherever any 
soul, even the most depraved, will 
submit to the terms upon which sal- 
vation is offered, there the blessed 
effects will at once appear. This is 
the one ultimate certainty of the 
Christian faith, and after all what 
more is necessary? 

If, then, Christianity is a winning 
force in the world at large, and in 
every individual case where its terms 
are met, how is it that its progress is 
so painfully slow? Why is this such 
a wicked world? Why are men still 
debating as to whether the world is 
growing better? How is it that after 
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Winning Out 

nineteen centuries of Christianity 
men are still debating as to whether 
it is true? How can Christianity, at 
its present ratio of progress, ever 
hope to win the world? 

These are questions which very 
many earnest souls are asking. Let 
us face them. In the first place, we 
must insist that all present-day pessi- 
mism as to the progress of humanity 
in general, and Christianity in par- 
ticular, is due to the short view of 
life which most people take. It may 
quite well be that comparing this 
generation with the one or two im- 
mediately preceding, we can see lit- 
tle moral, intellectual, or religious 
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Winning Out 

progress. Well, what of it? Are we 
to become alarmed or distressed on 
that account? Surely not 

Does a sensible mother become 
distressed because she can not see that 
her child has grown perceptibly in a 
week or a month? Let her go away 
for a year and then see. Now man 
is a growing child. You must not 
expect too much; you must remem- 
ber the long and arduous, aye, even 
hazardous way of life by which he 
has come. You must not expect 
moral miracles in a decade, or in a 
generation, or even in a century. The 
truth is, you must take the long view 

and not the short view of human life 
90 



■ 



Winning Out 

if you would estimate progress truly. 
Remember that man did not appear 
on this planet a few thousand years 
ago, but hundreds of thousands of 
years ago. 

Forget for the time the thin paper 
pages of history and turn the vast 
crumbling rock pages of the geologic 
history of man, and you will be left 
in no manner of doubt as to his prog- 
ress. You must sometimes forget 
about all our puny little yesterdays 
and fix attention upon the buried and 
forgotten aeons that have been swal- 
lowed up in the vast abyss of time. 
Go back and read the story of men 
of the old Stone Age ; then read that 
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Winning Out 

of the men of the new Stone Age, 
then of the Bronze Age, then of the 
earlier and later Iron Ages ; and then 
on and on to the thrilling and glori- 
ous climax — the age of steel, and 
steam, and electricity! 

The story of man's moral progress 
is quite as striking, if you trace it 
from those far-off days when he was 
a naked savage, right on to our own 
time. There is but one impression 
left — that of progress and improve- 
ment all along the difficult path of 
human life. Surely any person who 
takes this long view of life would be 
worse than a pessimist, would be an 

arrant fool, if he did not see that man 
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Winning Out 

is moving on the upward, and prob- 
ably unending, path of moral and 
spiritual good. 

Try to think of the Neanderthal 
and the American man at the same 
moment, and the whole truth will 
come like a sudden flash. We are 
but human; we see life only in its 
sectional and fragmentary forms. 
We know in part and therefore 
prophesy in part, but let us remem- 
ber that while we see the part, God 
sees the whole. We see the present; 
He sees the end from the beginning. 
"Man's days are as grass, but from 
everlasting to everlasting Thou art 
God." With God a thousand years 
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are but as one day. What then? Are 
we to resign ourselves to things as 
they are and await passively the 
movements of the slowly revolving 
ages, sustained only by the hope that 
at some time, infinitely remote, 
things may be better? Certainly not. 
On the contrary, we are to expect 
sudden tremendous and permanent 
changes for the better. Time is not 
our only or our principal hope; in- 
deed, the things of the spirit, like 
God Himself, are independent of the 
slow-moving progress of time. 
There is no sort of mathematical cal- 
culation that can estimate the prog- 
ress of spiritual forces. 
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Winning Out 

Take our own age, for example. 
Until fifty or sixty years ago, men 
were traveling by stage-coach and 
sailing vessels; they communicated 
with each other by letters that re- 
quired weeks and months for deliv- 
ery. They had been traveling and 
writing in the same old way for five 
thousand years, and not an improve- 
ment in all that time! Then steam 
was discovered, and afterward elec- 
tricity with the result that to-day we 
live an actual, everyday life that 
would have seemed like the wildest 
and most fantastic fairy talc to our 
own grandfathers. In these matters 
there has actually been more prog- 
95 



Winning Out 

ress made in the past fifty years than 
in any preceding five thousand years. 

Suppose for one moment that we 
have reached a climax in mechanical 
and material advancement, and that 
for the future the attention of man- 
kind is to be turned in other di- 
rections. The institution of free 
government, the revolution of social 
conditions, and, above all, the estab- 
lishment of enduring peace among 
nations, are some of the objects that 
would immediately be achieved. 

Who is there so blind as not to see 
that just such events will pave the 
way for the realization of that king- 
dom which shall never end! 

96 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
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Treatment Date: April 2005 

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